February 2004 | Volume 2, Number 5

Promoting the Environmental Justice & Health Union mission, Catalyst identifies training, research, policies, events, and funding opportunities that foster partnerships to eliminate environmental disease in low-income communities of color within the United States. To do that, Catalyst depends on information submitted by an advisory board of environmental health professionals and environmental justice activists as well as our readers.

TOOLBOX

Geographic Information Systems
Environmental Defense and EPA have built GIS systems that identify pollutants in environmental justice communities. Collaborations, such as that between West Harlem Environmental Action and Cornell University , can more effectively focus on specific problems (in this case, asthma) communities face. Though federal and state health and environmental agencies offer valuable GIS information, the Clary-Meuser Research Network and Movement Tech helps groups create their own GIS models.

Spanish language radio outreach
The Self Reliance Foundation has developed Spanish-language radio messages about pesticides for farmworkers and initiated the Justicia Ambiental campaign to inform the Latino community about environmental health and justice through radio, newspapers, and the internet.

OTHER REPORTS OF INTEREST

Lobbying
Policy Link has published an instruction manual for environmental justice groups about lobbying that includes information about when 501(c)(3) groups are allowed to lobby.

ADVISORY BOARD

Lynn Battle
Executive Director, Citizen's Lead Education & Poisoning Prevention (Birmingham, AL)

Michael Green
Executive Director, Center for Environmental Health (Oakland, CA)

Swati Prakash
Environmental Health Director, West Harlem Environmental Action (New York, NY)

Alejandra Tres
Executive Director, Association of Environmental Health Academic Programs (Portland, OR)

The Environmental Justice and Health Union is an independent project of the Center for Environmental Health

SUBSCRIBE and PROVIDE

The Catalyst is an online newsletter sent monthly to Environmental Justice & Health Union members. Groups with annual budgets of less than $200,000 receive free EJHU membership. The EJHU website (www.ejhu.org) includes information for activists and professionals about training, research, and policies, EJHU membership, and past issues of Catalyst.

If you want to provide information to be considered for inclusion in Catalyst, include a contact name, website, and e-mail address. Please forward the information to ejhu@ejhu.org or the following address:
Max Weintraub - Director
Environmental Justice and Health Union
528 61st Street, Suite A
Oakland, CA 94609

SPREAD THE WORD! - Free membership for community groups will be discontinued in April 2004. Sign up now!

The Next Step...

Black History Month is an opportunity to consider how lessons from the past may be applied to the present. Environmental disease in the African-American community drastically changed during the latter part of the 20th century. Rates of asthma dramatically increased while lead poisoning sharply decreased. Diabetes and cardiovascular illness increased while occupational injury steeply declined. Yet, as one threat has been replaced by another, the underlying causes have not.

The litany of environmental challenges some African-Americans face is long. African-Americans are exposed to more environmental chemicals than other racial groups. African-Americans have higher levels of many of the more uncommon chemicals than White Americans. Relative to White Americans, African-Americans have much less income. Thus, African-Americans are more likely to live in poor quality housing in neighborhoods with poor quality food, minimal open space, inadequate schools, and limited job opportunities. Such challenges create a reinforcing cycle of poverty that is difficult to escape. Support for the notion that they are a legacy of racism is reinforced by the fact that the life expectancy gap for White Americans and African-Americans has remained unchanged since 1945.

Health plays a critical role in breaking the cycle. Good health not only lengthens one's life, but enhances how much one can learn, work, and earn. Environmental health support for clean air, water, and land in African-American communities directly challenges environmental injustice and promotes a vision of the 21st century that, unlike the 20th, solves threats instead of substituting them.

PARTNERSHIPS

New Mexico coalition
The New Mexico Environmental Health Coalition has been formed to community-based health indicators and foster communication with state agencies.

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

Clean air
The American Lung Association has developed a comprehensive clean air website that includes information about dramatic changes proposed for the Clean Air Act.

Environmental Health Perspectives
One of the foremost environmental health research journals, Environmental Health Perspectives, is now available on-line for free.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Draft policy for Hawaii
The Hawaii Department of Health is seeking comments on a draft environmental equity policy and implementation strategy.

Federal disparities report weakened
A congressional investigation concluded that the final version of the first National Healthcare Disparities Report included language that significantly diminished the conclusions of the draft report. The National Medical Association, which represents more than 25,000 African American physicians, has asked the head of the Department of Health to revisit the issue and is seeking a meeting to discuss the report.

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CLOSING DATES

February 1
Victoria Foundation - New Jersey
$200,000
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February 1
Community-partnered interventions to reduce health disparities
$500,000
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

February 1
Occupational safety and health research
$100,000
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

February 1
Social and cultural dimensions of health
$2,500,000
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

February 13
APHA public health and environment abstracts
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

February 14
Riverside Community Health Foundation - California
$200,000
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

February 15
Civil Justice Foundation
$10,000
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

February 20
McKenzie River Gathering Foundation - Oregon
$10,000
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

February 28
Community Health Foundation - Ohio
$2,500
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

March 1
Funding Exchange
$20,000
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

March 1
A Territory Resource - Northwest
$7,500
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

March 2
Vanguard Public Foundation - California
$10,000
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

March 14
Foundation for Change - California
$7,000
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

March 15
San Francisco Fund - California
$300,000
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

March 15
Kansas Health Foundation - Kansas
$25,000

EVENTS CALENDAR

February 4, Boston MA
Building healthy communities
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February 5, Washington DC
Institute of Medicine - Diversity among health professionals
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February 14, San Francisco CA
Fundraising for communities of color
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February 19 - 21, Gainesville FL
Public interest environmental conference
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

February 23 - 24, Bethesda MD
Federal environmental health science advisory committee
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

February 27, Chapel Hill NC
Minority health and the built environment
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March 17, Kansas City MO
Student education on health disparities
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March 29 - April 2, Atlanta GA
ATSDR partners in public health